The tears of goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger and Sarah Zadrazil, who was unable to crown her 100th country match with a sense of achievement, have dried glamorous base camp in Pennyhill Park into the future. “We would have liked to have stayed longer. It’s always painful to have to leave a tournament. That was the case in 2017 and it’s no different today,” said Zinsberger. Yesterday afternoon, the charter plane with flight number ENT567 took off from London-Gatwick. On its return to Schwechat, the Austrian team was welcomed by Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and Minister for Women, Families and Integration, Susanne Raab.
“Deserved it”
The EURO is history for Rotweißrot, unforgettable moments – characterized by numerous emotions and four very strong matches (including the victories over Northern Ireland and Norway) – remain in eternal memory. “It was an incredibly good time, we achieved an incredible amount and hopefully made Austria proud,” emphasized Zinsberger.
Julia Hickelsberger-Füller, who missed a top chance when the score was 0-0, would have liked to advance to the final on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in a week’s time, the potential for that would have been there. “We deserved to get through,” said the lightning-fast winger, who will move to TSG Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga.
Three aluminum hits from the ÖFB selection (Marina Georgieva, Barbara Dunst, Sarah Puntigam) against the Germans cannot be repressed so quickly. “It really didn’t want to be,” mused Frankfurt legionnaire Dunst, in order to immediately look to the future. The 24-year-old goes into attack mode: “We just have to be more effective up front and also see that we can set more accents,” said the Styrian. Knowing full well that the next sporting highlight is just around the corner.
“This team is definitely ready for the World Cup,” said Dunst, who is looking forward to the first finals in Australia and New Zealand in 2023. The road to get there – starting with the qualifying home smash against England on September 3 – is rocky but doable. Captain Viktoria Schnaderbeck & Co. have the play-off ticket in their pockets, three tickets will be played this way. “It would be incredibly cool to be able to compete in such a big tournament again in the near future,” said Laura Feiersinger.
Faith can definitely move mountains. “We won’t let that get us down. We’ll draw the right conclusions and then we’ll go on the full attack,” announced Zinsberger in a combative manner.
No other reaction was to be expected.
Source: Nachrichten
